Re: Are recruiters really listening?

[John Posada <posada -at- FAXSAV -dot- COM>]

Leslie...I think you are giving recruiters more credit than they deserve.

This has been my experience. YMMV

Mary the Recruiter (Mary) is sitting at her desk when Very Large Company, Inc (VLCI) send her a req for a tech writer with X skills.  She notices that there are the following words or phrases that seem to be needed: writing, technical, UNIX, FrameMaker, and New Jersey.

Mary starts up her database, enters these terms and up pops a list of people with those word in their resumes.  Some or all of these names may get called.

There may be some notes about prior discussions and there may be some notes about preferences, but usualy not. 

They may not know diddly about technical writing.  it may be that the request they had before yours was for Powerbuilder and the one after you is for Y2K cobol programming.

Yes, more often than not, they simply want to get a body into an interview before their competition does.

My suggestion would be to seek out shops that only handle your skills.  There may not be alot of them.  I think my area as only 3-4 shops that only handle (or know real well) technical writers.  This is out of a field of maybe 300 recruiters that handle techn writers but also handle MANY other disciplines.  Don't waste your time or breath trying to educate them on what you do.  Simply say no thanks and move on.

It breaks down to quality vs quantity.  For myself, I'd rather hear about them all and turnaway the ones that don't fit.

On the other hand, think of it this way.  We are alsways looking to make ourselves stronger in our field.  After being asked 12 times in a row if I can write docmentation for a UNIX programming environment, I decide to take a course or two on introductory UNIX.  Now, if I get called with that job requirement, I can discuss it differently.

I think that a major problem in this field is that there is such a small percentage of qualified writers against such a large number of positions available that they are reaching for straws.

-----Original Message-----
From:   Leslie Bythewood [SMTP:leslie -dot- bythewood -at- erols -dot- com]
Sent:   Monday, November 24, 1997 11:12 AM
To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject:        Are recruiters really listening?

SOS: I have TRB.

In case you haven=92t heard, that stands for Technical  Recruiter Blues. =

I'm in a real pickle, and I don =92t know what to do.  It seems technica=
l
recruiting firms are more interested in slamming a technical writer into
any available slot than they are in making sure there=92s a good fit
between contractor and prospective client.

No matter how many times I remind a technical recruiting firm what I=92m
about, it=92s as though the recruiters are trained to listen with their
earmuffs on; what I say goes in one ear and out the other.  I=92m
beginning to sound like a broken record, because every time I talk to a
recruiter who tells me about a job that doesn=92t make good use of my
skillset, I have to tactfully remind the recruiter what I do for a
living.

Hey, I figure, after dealing with these firms for over a year, they
should be putting me in touch with clients who are looking for online
help experts, Web developers, and copywriters.  It=92s not like they don=92=


	http://www.documentation.com/, or http://www.dejanews.com/